Tracy Beckerman: My summer vacation

Tracy Beckerman

Wednesday

Apr 29, 2009 at 12:01 AMApr 29, 2009 at 1:33 AM

Every summer we take a break from our summer vacation and go on vacation. Instead of going to a beach near home, we get on a plane or drive to a beach somewhere else. While this may sound like an exercise in stupidity to some people, to me it makes perfect sense: At home I have to cook and clean and make meals and take the kids to the beach. When we go away, with any luck, the only thing on my agenda is making sure everyone has sunscreen on.

Every summer we take a break from our summer vacation and go on vacation. Instead of going to a beach near home, we get on a plane or drive to a beach somewhere else. While this may sound like an exercise in stupidity to some people, to me it makes perfect sense: At home I have to cook and clean and make meals and take the kids to the beach. When we go away, with any luck, the only thing on my agenda is making sure everyone has sunscreen on.

This year, with the economy being what it is, we were thinking we would probably have to skip the away vacation and do a staycation instead. I was really not looking forward to a week in the backyard wading pool. But at the last minute, we found a ridiculously great deal on a resort, threw in some frequent flier miles for airfare and voila – we had an away vacation.

Now before you start thinking I have some rich uncle who owns an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas, let me assure you, I have as few relatives to sponge off as most of you. What I do have is a laptop and the Internet, which is all anyone needs to nose around and find a fabulous place to take the family for a week or so without putting undue strain on your wallet.

The good news for all of us is that summer is the low season for many beach getaways outside the continental United States. Many resorts that are untouchable the rest of the year have summer specials that could be very doable for a family of four or five.

Since the island we were headed to averaged 350 days of sunshine a year, I felt pretty confident that it would be a good place for a beach vacation. So what are the odds that one-fifth of the yearly rain would fall the week we were there?

The good news was, for the first three days of our vacation, I didn’t have to worry about any of us getting sunburned. The bad news was, when you go to a place for fun in the sun, if there ain’t no sun, there ain’t no fun.

At least there was a game room the size of a gymnasium for just such an emergency. And so my son spent the better part of those three days becoming the master of the Wii universe. My daughter, however, spent the better part of those three days becoming the whining queen of the Caribbean.

“Do you want to see what’s happening in the kids club, Em?” I asked her.

“No,” she said. “The kids club is boring.”

“Do you want to go to the game room?”

“No, the game room is boring.”

“How about limbo, or reggae lessons or foosball?” I suggested.

“Boring, boring and more boring.”

Apparently we had used up all our frequent flier miles so my son could play video games and my daughter could be bored.

Still, I didn’t see anything wrong with this vacation. I didn’t have to cook or clean or make the beds or do laundry. There was no dog to feed. I didn’t have to be the entertainment director or carpool queen or dry-cleaning delivery person. Except for the matter of the whining children, as far as I was concerned, this vacation was a slam dunk.

Of course, I thought, a tan would definitely put it over the top.

But the forecast was for scattered showers all week (which, I suppose was better than the monsoon-like conditions we had had so far).

And so I prayed to the sun gods and asked that they show a little kindness to us, because there would still be seven more weeks of summer vacation I would have to fill when we got home.

And then lo and behold, the next day, the sun shone … meekly at first … and then progressively more with each passing hour.

“Yippee,” I said to my husband as we slathered lotion on the kids. “Let’s hit the beach.” We sunned. We surfed. We snorkeled. We sailed. We bonded as a family over conch salad and grilled grouper.

And then my son said, “After lunch can I go to the game room?”

“What, are you nuts?” I sputtered. “The sun finally came out. Don’t you want to be on the beach?”

“The beach is boring,” announced the whining queen of the Caribbean.

Hey, at least I got a tan.

Tips for Bargain Family Travel:

While travel is never inexpensive, there are some really fabulous deals for families if you look hard enough. Here are some sites, or check with your local travel agent.

- Travelwithkids.about.com: Includes a list of all-inclusive beach resort choices in the Caribbean and Mexico that are valuepriced and include such kid-friendly amenities as waterparks, trapezes and kids camps. Also, look for a list of packages in Hawaii, Disney World in Orlando and Disney Cruises.

- Travelocity.com/vacations: Most people know that Travelocity has great deals on airfare. However, they also update the Vacation Packages section of their site daily with great getaway deals. Click on “top deals.”

- http://www.tripadvisor.in/: Don’t reinvent the wheel. There are lots of families who have already done what you are looking to do. If you know where you want to go but are not sure where to stay, Trip Advisor is a great place to visit for ideas and tips on inexpensive accommodations.

Also, check out these blogs for great family vacation recommendations:

Family Travel & Vacations Blog

Traveling Mamas

We Just Got Back

Travel Savvy Mom

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